advocacy

Via BlogTO (which got it from the Annex Gleaner), I found out that the Annex Residents Association has published their Cycling Policy, calling for improved cycling infrastructure in their neighbourhood - bike lanes on Bloor from Avenue to Bathurst, separation of bike lanes from

Dave Meslin makes a pitch on why Mayor Rob Ford may not be so anti-bike. Ford made headlines with his quotes about cyclists "swimming with the sharks" and in this video which was distributed before last fall's election, Ford is quoted as saying "Cyclists are a pain in the ass".

Sign the separated bike lanes petition if you are interested in seeing a leap forward in appropriate infrastructure for cyclists downtown. Councillor Minnan-Wong, head of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, had presented the idea to the media last month. It's not a done deal by any means since local Councillor Vaughan and residents need to be on side, and some public consultation is already going on to change some streets such as Richmond/Adelaide. The petition calls for pilot projects to being in 2011.

Alan Heisey can't understand why some cycling activists are still hostile to separated bike lanes, given how common they are in other cities. So Heisey, who proposed separated bike lanes on Sherbourne Street at the City last year, provides us with an outline of some reasons why it is desirable to have a core network of continuous bicycle lanes separated from traffic in Toronto. I, however, think that Heisey has more to worry about the Mayor's opposition rather than some cyclists.

It's a bit of tilting at windmills to try to push newspapers into cover more than just the latest, shiny car or gas-guzzling SUV. Local quixotic advocates (such as former courier Wayne Scott) have been trying to get the media to play fair by pushing for inclusion of even a little bit of cycling in the automobile sections of newspapers (not to mention television or the internet). It would be a big accomplishment, given that our local Toronto Star "Wheels" section is the largest such car fetish read in the country.